Management, Care and Feeding. 4^ 



desires, such as feather plucking and egg eating, while exercise acts 

 on the contrary, for it stirs up the blood, keeps down internal fat- 

 ness, and all tendency to laziness, lousiness and consequent ail- 

 ments that follow in their train. 



THE BREEDING STOCK. 



Good Stock.— Begin with good stock, not necessarily high 

 prized birds, for many of this class are miserable failures, as far as 

 reproduction is concerned, but birds that will honestly score eighty- 

 five points or more, an eighty-five point Plymouth Rock is a good 

 bird for all round breeding, but if one aims for high prize.s, birds of 

 greater excellence are needed. 



Constitutional Vigor.— The possession of good stock, healthy 

 and vigorous, is a matter of paramount importance to every breeder. 

 Too much pains cannot be taken in selecting those birds that have 

 constitutional vigor, well and clearly marked, and show they are 

 from good stock getters, for a bird in whom excellence is constitu- 

 tional is more apt to transmit this excellence in all its developed 

 power and beauty to its progeny. 



Incestuous Breeding. — In-breeding consists in the mating of 

 birds which are related in blood to each other. The relationship 

 may be near as that of a brother and sister, or remote, a mere forti- 

 eth cousinship, for instance ; but if there be any relationship between 

 the birds which are mated, it is in-breeding. 



Breeding in and in continuously is the most fruitful source of 

 trouble we have to contend against in keeping up the fertility, stam- 

 ina, a constitutional vigor and hardiness of our stock after having 

 secured some temporary improvements or established some desirable 

 points. For a while incestuous breeding will give many uniform 

 points in size, color and markings, and these may be retained as 

 long as the vitality of the breeding stock lasts, but sooner or later it 

 will begin to show in the non-hatching of a large percentage of the 

 eggs, the chicks die in the shell or too feeble to liberate themselves, 

 many come deformed or in the shape of " sports," for all the defects 

 of past generations meet no counteracting merits in the opposite sex 

 but simply a reproduction of themselves — the defects being more 

 potent in reproduction. 



Overcrowding. — The evil effects of overcrowding birds in 

 houses or runs will show in a short time. Fowls cannot bear to be 

 massed ; it matters not how thrifty they may be when gathered from 

 their runs a few weeks of close cooping will show in their looks and 



